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Tag Archives: macrobiotics

Want to find love fast and keep love forever? Because expressions of love and gratitude are so important in a long term relationship, one way to jump start your love life is by reconnecting with Love. Preparing food from your heart is an ideal way to connect with loving energy, so the best time to do this is when you are washing your whole grains. To enhance your connection with Love, remember to open up your heart to joyful experiences.

The process of washing brown rice is an ideal opportunity to harmonize with Nature and revitalize loving energy. The more you cultivate Love, the more you will experience it. The love you add to your food is the secret ingredient to a long lasting, loving relationship.

Learn how to wash brown rice in this video. As you caress the grains of rice, feel love and gratitude for your food. Take a few moments to do these exercises to help you notice a shift in your energy:

What sensations do you notice in your body? Is there tightness in your shoulder muscles? Or are you relaxed and at ease?

What emotions are coming up for you? Are you feeling fearful or anxious? Or do you feel peaceful and loving?

What thoughts are you having? Are you distracted by the past? Or are you focused on the present moment?

Remember, Love attracts Love. So, the more you express love and gratitude, the more your relationship will evolve into a deeper, richer experience, even an exciting eternal love affair.

Healthy Relationship Tip

In some languages, the word love can be expressed in many ways. For example, in Greek, there are many words for different kinds of love:

Eros means “passionate, romantic love” with sensuous longing, such as in dating or marriage.

Philia means “friendship” between family or friends.

Agapē means “love” in reference to general affection, such as for a good meal, one’s offspring, or one’s spouse.

Storge means “natural affection” used exclusively for one’s children or family.

Thelema means “desire,” such as to be occupied with something.

Love is the universal language that transcends time. So, to find love fast and keep love forever, start by finding how many ways you can say “I love you” to your Beloved.

Ready to spice up your love life? We all know that chewing is an important part of healthy digestion. But did you know that how you chew can affect the quality of your relationships as well?

Chewing not only improves your digestion and reduces risks of illness and disease, it can also boost your sexual health and deepen the intensity of your relationship. This is because how you absorb foods impacts your sexual vitality. Here are 5 eating-related lifestyle adjustments you can make to improve your digestion and revive your sex life:

1. Eat at regular times

A regular mealtime schedule brings rhythm and balance to your daily routine. When your digestion functions on a predictable cycle, you are in harmony with the natural order, and your relationships with people, animals, food, and yourself are more nurturing.

2. Sit down to eat

The stress of eating on the go–running, standing, driving, doing business, concentrating, and reading–can lead to ulcers and poor digestion. Sit down to eat and avoid multi-tasking. Mindfully eating allows you to fully enjoy your meal and your partner’s company without distraction. This simple step not only improves digestion, but also cultivates gratitude for your food and relationship.

3. Chew more

Digestion begins in the mouth. Amylase enzyme in saliva breaks down carbohydrates so the body can more easily absorb them. The more you chew, the more complex carbohydrates (like brown rice) are converted into simple sugars and become naturally sweeter. Chewing foods 50-100 times not only improves digestion, it also allows you to more easily embrace the sweetness in life, including being with your partner.

4. Eat a moderate volume of food

Skipping meals, dieting, overeating, or under eating can all weaken your digestion, which becomes overworked and exhausted. Eating a moderate amount of food restores digestive function and boosts sexual vitality as you absorb more nutrients and energy.

5. Stick to whole foods

Over time, eating rich, heavy, or greasy foods, such as meat and hydrogenated oils, burdens digestion and blocks sexual function. Cooked whole foods, like leafy greens and grains, nourish digestion, help cleanse the body, and revitalize your reproductive organs.

Healthy digestion not only strengthens your body from the inside out, your relationships will become sweeter as well. Happy chewing!

If a man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, count at the tips of his fingers how many things in this life truly will give him enjoyment, invariably he will find food is the first one.
~Lin Yutang

In some countries, like India, the art of eating with your hands is viewed as a sensual experience. By involving as many of the senses as possible–sight, touch, smell, and taste–you not only deepen your relationship with food, you can also reconnect with your partner on a sensual level.

Next time you sit down to a meal with your partner make it “fingers only.” Reconnect with each other on a more intimate level by feeding each other healthy finger food. Here are three finger foods to romance your lover:

1. Sexy “finger food” includes desserts and elaborate fruits

Vegan chocolate covered strawberries

Peeled grapes

Vegan coconut macaroons

Chopped dates rolled into balls and covered in coconut

2. Healthy bite sized “finger food” includes appetizers and snacks

Mushrooms stuffed with grain and nut pilaf

Pita pizza baked with squash sauce and veggies

Whole wheat crackers spread with walnut and roasted mushroom pate

Greens rolls or sushi filled with grains and veggies

Spring rolls and dumplings

Bite sized tempeh sandwiches

3. Foods that are dipped into a savory sauce or dressing

Veggies dipped in pumpkin seed sauce

Spring salad greens dipped in vinaigrette

Green or black olives dipped in hummus

This Valentine’s Day, design a romantic “lovers only” meal using finger foods. You will not only enrich your connection with your food, you will also nurture a more intimate relationship with your partner.

This is my wish for you: peace of mind, prosperity through the year, happiness that multiplies, health for you and yours, fun around every corner, energy to chase your dreams, joy to fill your holidays!
~D.M. Dellinger

Are you having an energized, exciting holiday season? Or do you feel sluggish and exhausted, barely making it through the entire day? If you feel tired and run down, you may be eating traditional holiday food and this kind of food depletes your energy.

If you want to feel stress-free and more energized, here are some things you can do to kick the holiday food habit and have an energized, vibrant, exciting holiday season:

1. Eat in moderation

The key is moderation, because when you overindulge, you become more susceptible to disease. Instead of filling your plate, choose a few items from the healthier dishes on the table and eat a smaller amount.

2. Eat energizing, exciting foods

During the holidays, you can tend to eat lots of rich, heavy, high fat holiday foods over a short period of time, which can shut down your digestion. When your digestion becomes compromised, your body becomes exhausted, and you feel tired and sluggish. If you want more energy without overdosing on caffeine, eat energizing, exciting macrobiotic foods. For example, use healthy substitutes for heavy, high fat ingredients, such as using almond milk instead cream.

3. Eat according to the season

During the holidays, the weather becomes colder. So, you adjust by wearing warmer clothes and putting on the heat. Remember to include warming seasonal foods in your routine, as well. When you eat seasonal foods, you’re less susceptible to colds. By eating foods that are warming, like soups, stews, and root vegetables, rather than cooling raw salads, you increase internal warmth and strengthen your immune system to fight colds and flu.

When you have a nutrition plan in place, you will not only make better food choices, you will also have more energy and stamina to get through the holidays. Wishing you a healthy, happy, holiday season!

The more connections you and your lover make, not just between your bodies, but between your minds, your hearts, and your souls, the more you will strengthen the fabric of your relationship, and the more real moments you will experience together.
~Barbara De Angelis

The quality of your food determines not only your physical health, but also your state of mind. Your state of mind can affect your relationships.

To strengthen a budding relationship, avoid these three foods that affect mental health:

1. Alcohol

Consuming large amounts of sugar not only exhausts your body but also blurs your judgment. Alcohol, which is a form of refined sugar, distorts thinking.

2. Meat

When you take in excess alcohol, you may crave plenty of meat, and meat makes your mind restless and cloudy.

3. Restaurant food

Although you may choose healthy food from the menu, restaurant food carries the energy of the chef, which affects the energy of the relationship.

Traditionally, a woman would cook for the man, contributing her loving thoughts to the meal. They would share the energetic quality of this food and be united through their state of mind. Today, if they eat out in a restaurant, they take in the chef’s energy and thoughts, and they become united with the chef. Can you imagine this three-way affair? To build a strong bond within a relationship, it is best if the couple eat only the food prepared at home with their loving thoughts.

So, to keep your mind clear and your relationship strong, avoid alcohol, meat, and restaurant food. This practice will also improve communication and understanding, because you and your partner share the same state of mind.

Healthy Relationship Tip

To strengthen communication, use the Active Listening Method. To clarify what your partner is saying, follow this script:

Active Listening Method

Check in: “I’m checking in.”

Ask for clarification: “I am hearing you say . . .”

Then listen for feedback as to your perception of your partner’s words.

Thank your partner: “Thank you.”

Until you can repeat what your partner is saying on their terms, you haven’t heard him or her. To gain better understanding, follow this script again.

While sensuous aphrodisiacs like rose or chocolate take center stage on date night, twig-like burdock root has largely been ignored. Growing deep in the earth, burdock’s downward gathering energy nourishes the lower half of the body, including the reproductive organs. But unlike stimulants that activate the adrenals temporarily, burdock provides healing benefits that are long lasting. When your reproductive organs are healthy, so is your sex life.

Deeply strengthening to the intestines, kidneys, and reproductive organs, burdock root is also used in the macrobiotic diet to purify the blood and cleanse the liver. Its meaty flavor enhances sautes, stews, soups, and gravies. A traditional Japanese healing dish called kimpira uses braised burdock and carrot. Because it contains volatile oils, saute burdock a few minutes to allow oils to evaporate before adding burdock to a dish.

Add carrots on top of burdock. Add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer 20 minutes, covered, or until vegetables are tender. Add water if necessary to prevent pan from drying out. Season with salt. Continue cooking, covered, 2 minutes. Remove cover and cook until water is evaporated. Top carrots and burdock with caramelized red onion.

Whether you are feeling lethargic or just want to improve your sex life, burdock is a natural way to increase youthful vitality in all the right places–without pills or surgery!

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
~Ashley Smith
Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Do you remember as a child how fun it was to play in the grass and smell the flowers? That fun doesn’t have to end. Your awareness of the world is dependent on your senses, which are part of your body. Through your senses, you can experience the natural state of interconnectedness between you and everything around you, even your food. Cultivating mindfulness can enhance your relationship with food and help in the healing process.

Focusing on your senses helps you become mindfully awake and perceive the vividness of each moment. Rather than separating you from your food, every sense organ can become a doorway that provides the experience of natural connection between all beings in nature. Does this make sense?

When you experience yourself as being part of the whole family of life, you become open to universal healing energy. Everything you see is a communion of you and nature, no separation, joined through your senses. Use smell, taste, sight, touch, and sound to connect with your food.

Let’s focus on your sense of smell. To develop a conscious relationship with food, smell your food when you are:

Standing at the produce counter in the grocery store

Buying grains and sea vegetables in bulk

Cutting vegetables for a recipe

Washing rice before soaking

Cooking a meal

Adding herbs and spices to a dish

Walking through a garden

Sitting in a restaurant

Now practice using your senses of sight, touch, taste, and sound. As you use your senses, you can develop an intimate relationship and profound respect for your food. Can you see how this deep respect and reverence helps to strengthen your connection with nature and allows the healing process to unfold?

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About Julie

Julie S. Ong is the author of The Everything® Guide to Macrobiotics (Adams Media, 2010), which helps men and women of all ages discover the healing and wellness powers of macrobiotics. To find out how to take your health to the next level, visit her site at https://juliesong.wordpress.com/

In her spiritual blog, called The Art of Being Love, Julie channels Spirit and writes Spirit Insights, one minute readings that bring spiritual awareness to your daily life. Follow her at http://youluv.wordpress.com/